


“I’m not picking your drunk ass up at three in the morning anymore.”

by peachb0mber



Category: Oxenfree
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-05
Updated: 2016-06-05
Packaged: 2018-07-12 11:24:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,034
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7101214
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/peachb0mber/pseuds/peachb0mber
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompt list <a href="http://theprincessjessi.tumblr.com/post/140040153451/best-friend-starters">here</a>.</p><p>Original fic post <a href="http://theprincessjessi.tumblr.com/post/140096910376/im-not-picking-your-drunk-ass-up-at-three-in-the">here</a>.</p>
            </blockquote>





	“I’m not picking your drunk ass up at three in the morning anymore.”

_To the windoooow, to the wall!_

Shaken abruptly from the sweet embrace of sleep, Alex bolts upright in bed, eyes wild and heart racing. She gathers her bearings after a few seconds and looks balefully at her ringing phone, wondering why on Earth she ever set that as Ren’s ringtone.

Rubbing the sleep from her eyes, she reaches over for the phone right as the music stops. Her hand hovers, confusion coloring her features, and she withdraws, assuming it was a butt dial. The clock on her dresser blinks 2:27 in bright red numbers and she whines out loud, head falling into her hands. It’s going to take her forever to fall back asleep…

The phone blares Lil Jon again and she’s quicker to react this time, snatching it up in seconds and pressing it to her ear.

“What?”

“Heyyy Aleeex.”

Oh no. Alex closes her eyes. Ren’s voice is loud, louder than usual, and she has to turn down her phone volume.

“Hey, Ren.” She can sense in his voice that something’s amiss. “You okay, buddy?”

“‘M golden! Did you know,” a hiccup interrupted his slurred words, “that Miss Angelica what’s-her-face is actually, like, a super mega asshole?”

Angelica. Alex dimly recalls Ren talking about a girl he was going on a date with tonight. She can imagine where this is going, and her blood starts to boil.

“Ren. Where did you go tonight?”

He goes quiet for a minute, like he’s going to be the one in trouble. “Just, y’know, just that new club on like, whatever street this is. What, what street is this? I dunno, you know what I mean. Where, I mean.”

Alex’s hand fists the blanket. “Did she leave you there?”

“Yup!” Ren’s voice is oddly cheerful, but she can hear the crack in his voice. Alex throws the blankets off and hunts around in the dark for her shoes.

“I am going to kill her with my bare hands,” she says, voice calm but biting. She comes up with a shoe and shoves it on before continuing the search.

“No, no no, she’s fine, y’know, it’s just–just my fault, I guess, I dunno,” Ren rambles, stopping to shout at someone who, by the sound of it, ran into him. Alex speeds up her search.

“Shut up, Ren.” The other sneaker is knotted too tightly for her to slip on, so she plops on the ground to untie it. “Your parents?”

Ren scoffs. “Think I’m with you, naturally.” He pronounces “naturally” as “nat-your-ah-lee” and Alex can officially confirm he’s smashed. He wouldn’t call his parents in a normal situation, much less this one.

“Don’t,” Alex sighs, “don’t go anywhere, okay? I’m on my way.”

Ren chuckles. “My legs are jello.”

Alex, exasperated, says goodbye and hangs up the phone. She presses the heels of her hands against her eyes. She loves Ren, without a doubt, but his carelessness and bad taste in women is starting to take a toll on her.

She leaves her room with her phone and wallet in her jacket pockets, heavy duty flashlight in hand. She stops to grab Jonas, despite the possibility of Ren making a scene about it. He agrees to go without a fight, stumbling into his shoes and pulling his beanie down so far that it covers his eyes before his sleepily rearranges it. Alex is momentarily overwhelmed to have such a good step-brother.

The pair sneak out Jonas’s window, down the strategically placed tree, and Alex leads the way to Ren. The setting and situation is entirely different, but Alex gets horrible goosebumps at the wave of deja vu she experiences. The flashlight shakes in her hand, and Jonas puts a hand on her shoulder.

“I know what you’re thinking, and yes it’s familiar, but no, it’s not the island or some weird hallucination,” he assures her. “We’re actually here and we’re actually missing out on sleep thanks to Ren. How surprising.”

Alex gives a breathless laugh, grateful to have him with her. “And somehow I’m his sidekick. Yeah, right.”

They reach the club around 3:00. There are people loitering around the outside smoking or chatting, and the music inside reverberates down the street. The streetlights are plenty enough that Alex turns off her flashlight, but she holds it like a weapon, just in case. Ren’s sitting on the ground, head leaning against the wall of the building, eyes closed. Alex exhales in relief.

She rushes over to him while Jonas lags a bit behind, on alert. She kicks Ren’s foot and he jerks, eyes flying open. A smile spreads across his face and he struggles to stand. “Aleeeex!” He wobbles and Alex grabs his arm and puts it around her shoulders to support him. “Just like old times, huh? I get shit on and you come save me.” He laughs and Alex frowns because it’s not a happy laugh, not a Ren laugh, but she doesn’t comment on it.

“What are sidekicks for?” she replies instead as Jonas comes over to support Ren from the other side. “Thanks, Jonas.”

“Aw, man, you brought him?” Ren groans, head lolling onto Alex’s shoulder.

“You’re welcome,” Jonas says with a roll of his eyes.

“Ren, we need to have a talk about your choice in women,” Alex says, bringing the attention back to her. “Like, maybe you should stop. Have you ever considered boys?” She’s joking, of course, and Ren snorts.

“Hey, Jonah, y’wanna go on a date with me?” he asks, looking up at Jonas with a lazy smile and batting his eyes. Alex can’t tell if he said Jonas’s name wrong on purpose or not, but she cracks up laughing at the way Jonas scrunches up his nose in disgust.

“Not…not particularly.”

Ren shrugs at Alex. “There. I tried.”

“That’s fair.” She wipes a tear out of her eye. “Let’s blow this pop stand.”

They’ve only been walking about five minutes when the bottom falls out of the sky, drenching them to the bone immediately.

“Son of a bitch,” Jonas curses.

“Oh, come on!” Ren yells up at the sky.

“I’m not picking your drunk ass up at three in the morning anymore,” Alex decides.


End file.
